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ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

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Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#41

Post by ericd »

jason_slack wrote: post #22
myself248 wrote: post #16

I've been looking for an e-ink tablet that I can bend to my will, but the Kindle hacking scene seems to have peaked around 2012 and it's a desolate wasteland of dead links now. That's a shame, because the hardware is really cheap. ReMarkable is sort of astonishingly expensive, but that would be justified if these "hacks" were officially supported or at least acknowledged enough that some future firmware update wouldn…

> ReMarkable is sort of astonishingly expensive, I have been contemplating buying a ReMarkable 2 as I prefer to handwrite everything/annotate/. The price tag is a bit hefty given the cost of an iPad and pencil and the zillion other things it does. I'm curious if you are indeed going to buy one?

I bought one, I love it so far.

I wouldn’t compare it to an iPad. This is much more tuned to helping you think - no notifications whatsoever, no web browser to offer opportunities to do something else. Or, put another way, the fact that it doesn’t do a zillion things is a good thing if your goal is to be able to think deeply.

Kind of like how some writers use ancient equipment that doesn’t connect to the internet to get their writing done.

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#42

Post by striking »

afandian wrote: post #20
bergstromm466 wrote: post #9

Is the only thing stopping e-ink tablets/devices from becoming afforable because of the high rent/royalties for the patented e-ink technology? I'm keen to use one because 1) i think over it's lifetime it will likely consume less energy than an LCD/OLED tablet, and 2) because it would be better for my eyes when i'm reading articles/research or books.

FWIW, the battery life is surprisingly short. I guess it's the Wacom digitiser broadcasting RF all the time.

This hasn't been my experience; I've been using it fairly actively for the past week and have worked it down only to 30% charge.

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#43

Post by MrDrDr »

a1011 wrote: post #32

I've thought about getting one of these. Even though I type about as fast as I write, I think better when I write in a notebook with drawings to organize my ideas. Can anyone who has one tell me how accurate the handwriting recognition is? And how responsive is the pen-tablet interface? Does it actually feel like writing on paper (responsiveness-wise)?

I've found it surprisingly accurate. But the main workflow is a little awkward. The handwriting conversion only seems available (unless I've missed something) when you want to share a document via email - the conversion to text happens before you send it. This seems to be the only way to convert handwriting - which is a little annoying.

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#44

Post by wiradikusuma »

I'm going to get my R2 soon. Does anyone know if it can open (read+write) basic Excel documents? I have a "Weekly Todo" XLS (it's just blank grids) that I always print for writing down notes in the grids, and by end of week, put those back to computer. Would be great if I can skip the print-transcribe loop.

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#45

Post by ericd »

afandian wrote: post #20
bergstromm466 wrote: post #9

Is the only thing stopping e-ink tablets/devices from becoming afforable because of the high rent/royalties for the patented e-ink technology? I'm keen to use one because 1) i think over it's lifetime it will likely consume less energy than an LCD/OLED tablet, and 2) because it would be better for my eyes when i'm reading articles/research or books.

FWIW, the battery life is surprisingly short. I guess it's the Wacom digitiser broadcasting RF all the time.

Eh? Are you talking about the RM2? Mine goes for a few weeks of occasional use without needing a charge. Is that what you’re seeing? It’s supposedly much, much better than RM1.

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#46

Post by calebkaiser »

I wish so badly that color e-ink was further along. I'd love a tablet that could replace my notebooks, but for some reason, needing a second screen to read my textbooks (color is nonnegotiable for diagram-heavy some textbooks, in my experience) makes me reticent. The ReMarkable 2 looks fantastic, and I love the idea of a distraction-free, dedicated writing/reading tablet, but $450 feels just a touch too far for a device that will require me to use a second device to read textbooks.

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#47

Post by diggan »

smt88 wrote: post #21
runeks wrote: post #15

Does anyone know if it's possible to use a ReMarkable tablet as an external laptop monitor? In the summer I like to sit outside coding, but the sunlight outshines my laptops LCD display. So I'd like to use an eInk display as an external monitor. And I gather ReMarkable is the best bet because of their hackability.

The refresh rate on e-ink is so low that coding on one would probably be excruciating. You should think of it as a replacement for paper, not a replacement for a monitor. If your laptop isn't very bright, you're mostly out of luck. You can work in the shade, try polarized glasses, buy a brighter laptop, or find a portable monitor that is brighter than your built-in panel.

> If your laptop isn't very bright ... buy a brighter laptop ... and a portable monitor that is brighter

As someone who works with my laptop outside in the sun a lot, the trick is not to have a brighter laptop but to have one with a matte display instead of glossy, and use bright backgrounds for everything. Even when I'm in direct sunlight, matte display and light themes make me able to see my code without any squinting or troubles.

> The refresh rate on e-ink is so low that coding on one would probably be excruciating

If you've edited files in vim over a spotty SSH connection and wasn't phased too much by it, you could probably survive the e-ink refresh rate as well.

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#48

Post by dheera »

calebkaiser wrote: post #46

I wish so badly that color e-ink was further along. I'd love a tablet that could replace my notebooks, but for some reason, needing a second screen to read my textbooks (color is nonnegotiable for diagram-heavy some textbooks, in my experience) makes me reticent. The ReMarkable 2 looks fantastic, and I love the idea of a distraction-free, dedicated writing/reading tablet, but $450 feels just a touch too far for a dev…

Have you checked this one out? Not associated with them but I do own a Boox Max Lumi (not color) and just saw the announcement about this.

https://onyxboox.com/boox_poke2color

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#49

Post by dheera »

jason_slack wrote: post #22
myself248 wrote: post #16

I've been looking for an e-ink tablet that I can bend to my will, but the Kindle hacking scene seems to have peaked around 2012 and it's a desolate wasteland of dead links now. That's a shame, because the hardware is really cheap. ReMarkable is sort of astonishingly expensive, but that would be justified if these "hacks" were officially supported or at least acknowledged enough that some future firmware update wouldn…

> ReMarkable is sort of astonishingly expensive, I have been contemplating buying a ReMarkable 2 as I prefer to handwrite everything/annotate/. The price tag is a bit hefty given the cost of an iPad and pencil and the zillion other things it does. I'm curious if you are indeed going to buy one?

I ended up going with a Boox tablet, mainly because it can run arbitrary Android apps. This means that among other things, installing the Kindle app turns it into a Kindle, and I can also install Dropbox, Google Drive, and Slack on it to transfer PDF sheet music and papers, among other things.

Re: ReMarkable tablet open source tools and hacks

#50

Post by 1996 »

calebkaiser wrote: post #46

I wish so badly that color e-ink was further along. I'd love a tablet that could replace my notebooks, but for some reason, needing a second screen to read my textbooks (color is nonnegotiable for diagram-heavy some textbooks, in my experience) makes me reticent. The ReMarkable 2 looks fantastic, and I love the idea of a distraction-free, dedicated writing/reading tablet, but $450 feels just a touch too far for a dev…

> I wish so badly that color e-ink was further along

It is coming: a waveshare 7 color eink screen is $600 on aliexpress, 16 second refresh

If partial refresh comes more supported in open source, pictures could be drawn immediately with the b&w text, then refresh little by little to add color.

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